Man climbs 80-foot cedar tree to rescue scared cat
Published: April 27, 2007
What goes up must come down — even if its scratching and clawing along the way.
When Tom the cat found himself 75 feet up a cedar tree on Gregory Drive Sunday, you’d think he would have shown more gratitude to the man who dragged him down five days later.
Sure, the gray, short-haired cat purred on the trip down Friday, but Sutherlin’s Mike Taylor ended up with a few scratches as well.
“It was happy to see me, but it was pretty scared,” Taylor said.
Tom had been run up the 80-foot tree by the neighbor’s dogs while his owner, 12-year-old Brianna Bohnenkamp, was away on vacation.
Cat calls and pet food failed to coax the feline down. The Winston-Dillard Fire District doesn’t have a ladder truck, so firefighters couldn’t help.
So when Brianna’s father, Jim Bohnenkamp, spotted Taylor with a boom truck in Winston, he took a chance. Turns out Taylor was looking to purchase the truck for a business he’s starting up, Mike Taylor’s Tree Service, and it wasn’t his to use.
Nevertheless, the man with 13 years of tree experience was happy to make a quick climb up the thick cedar. Caught without his equipment, Taylor went freehand, though he doesn’t recommend that stunt to others.
Within 10 minutes, Tom was safe on the ground and back in the arms of his owner, albeit covered in pitch.
“He’s like my favorite cat of them all,” Brianna said.
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